Lottery winner rapist Edward Putman admits fraud

A convicted rapist who won nearly £5 million on the lottery admitted fraudulently claiming around £13,000 in benefits today.

Edward Putman pleaded guilty to two counts of benefit fraud when he appeared at St Albans Magistrates' Court in Hertfordshire.

The 47-year-old continued applying for housing benefit and income
support after receiving his windfall in September 2009, even writing
letters to the Department for Work and Pensions and his local council
claiming he was broke and could not even afford to eat.

In reality Putman, who was convicted of rape in 1993, was living
the high life, splashing out on two sports cars and a new house.

Magistrates said the offences were too serious for sentencing
under the powers available to them, and the case was committed to St
Albans Crown Court on July 24.

The court heard Putman began receiving income support in 2000 on the basis of his being incapacitated by anxiety issues.

In order to do so he needed proof from his doctor of his mental
health problems and signed a document confirming that he would notify
the authorities if his condition changed.

But when he failed to attend a medical check-up in 2009, his
benefits were suspended, before being officially ended in April the
following year.

In July 2010, 10 months after being made a millionaire by his lottery win, he wrote to the Department of Work and Pensions, begging them to reinstate his benefits.

He claimed he did not attend the medical examination because he was too ill.

"I lost a lot of weight and had lot to deal with," he wrote.

"I didn't know whether I would still be alive. I'm on the brink of being evicted."

He also wrote to Dacorum Borough Council saying that he had been
forced to survive on handouts from his family and friends, and had not
been able to pay his council tax or rent, apart from putting £200
towards it, which he had borrowed from his family.

The court heard that his benefits were then reinstated and were also back-dated, as he had asked them to be, to January 2010.

But the court heard that the authorities became suspicious when,
that October, he went to the council asking if he could buy his council
house under the right-to-buy scheme, telling them he had the £84,000
needed to buy it in cash.

Putman claimed he wanted to pay in cash because he did not have a bank
account, but when the case was referred to Watford Fraud Section it was
discovered that he did have one with £100,000 in it.

Further investigation then found that Putman also had an account with St James's Bank - the bank recommended to lottery winners by operator Camelot.

Its records showed that, on September 10 2009, two large sums of
cash were paid into his account with them - one for just over £2.5
million, and the other for £2.4 million, prosecutor Hita Mashru said.

Putman was invited to be interviewed under caution, in which he
said he had not spent any of the money he received in benefits because
he knew it would have to be paid back.

The court heard he claimed a total of £4,809.18 from Dacorum
Borough Council between September 2009 and October 2010, and £8,033.59
from the Department for Work and Pensions between between September 2009
and May last year.

"When you look at the entirety of the facts in full in relation
to how this has gone about, it's very calculating," Ms Mashru said.

She added that Putman had opted not to go public with his lottery win.

"You may see that it's very clear why. He has previous
convictions and the fact that he was claiming benefits, clearly any
publicity would have warned the Department for Work and Pensions that he
was a person who should not have been receiving benefits."

During mitigation, the court heard that the defendant had
admitted his deceit during questioning and had now paid back the money
he owed in full.

Bearded Putman, of Station Road, Kings Langley, Hertfordshire,
sat at the front of the court dressed in a grey anorak and grey
trousers.